Nuclear Posture Review: Two letters of protest from Japan

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation received copies of the following letters, dated 6 February 2018, from the Japan Council against A and H Bombs. The letters, written in response to the publication of the US Nuclear Posture Review, are addressed to President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. We ask that as many people and organisations as possible circulate these letters as an act of solidarity with anti-nuclear campaigners in "Japan, the A-bombed country".

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To President Donald Trump

United States of America

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　     6 February 2018

Letter of Protest against the US Nuclear Posture Review

We, of the people of Japan, the A-bombed country, strongly protest against your nuclear policy formulated in the newly released ‘Nuclear Posture Review’, which brings the US much closer to the actual use of nuclear weapons by modernizing your nuclear arsenals and developing new nuclear weapons.

Trying to justify that nuclear weapons are necessary for security, the Nuclear Posture Review sets out sustaining and modernizing the nuclear triad (SSBNs, ICBMs and strategic nuclear bombers), as well as the development of low-yield nuclear warheads and sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs). Besides, it does not even exclude first nuclear strike.

As the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, caused by A-bombings of the USA, showed, any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences. World opinion determined never to allow this calamity to be repeated, which led to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in the United Nations last year. The policies laid down by the Nuclear Posture Review run counter to this worldwide development in favour of a world without nuclear weapons.

The redeployment of submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) will increase the danger of nuclear weapons being brought into the territory of this A-bombed country.  We resolutely oppose bringing nuclear weapons into Japan in any form.

We call on you and your Administration to cancel all nuclear build-up plans and nuclear strike policies formulated in the Nuclear Posture Review.  We urge you to sincerely endeavour to achieve a ‘world without nuclear weapons’, which the United States once vowed to pursue, beginning with joining in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

                                                                                          The 90^th General Assembly of the 

National Board of Directors

                         Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo)

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To Prime Minister Abe Shinzo

Foreign Minister Kono Taro

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                          6 February 2018

Letter of Protest against Your Support

of the US Nuclear Posture Review

On 3 February 2018, you issued a statement welcoming the newly released Nuclear Posture Review of the Trump Administration, which sets out massive nuclear build-up plans and policies presupposing the actual use of nuclear weapons. We strongly protest against your position, which actually affirms the use of nuclear weapons in spite of the calamities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced by our country.

From the viewpoint of the inhumane effects of nuclear weapons, the Japanese Government has so far joined in the joint initiative on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, which called for a ban on use and the elimination of nuclear weapons, and supported a number of UN resolutions to this same effect.

Despite all this, you now support the policy of US ‘nuclear deterrence’ which leads to the use of nuclear weapons and relies on it.  This amounts to accepting the possibility of another inhumane tragedy like Hiroshima or Nagasaki to occur.

We demand that you, as the government of the only A-bombed country, should oppose any use of nuclear weapons and break away from the US ‘nuclear umbrella’. We further call on you to fulfil the duty of the A-bombed country to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, have it ratified, and take further actions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.

                                                      

                 　The 90^th General Assembly of the 

National Board of Directors

                      　Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo)